Status: 08/21/2022 2:22 p.m
The Polish Environment Minister says that “fake news” is being spread in Germany in connection with the fish kill. Brandenburg’s Ministry of the Environment had announced that increased levels of pesticides had been detected in the river.
The death of fish in the Oder is increasingly becoming a political issue: Poland’s Environment Minister Anna Moskwa is now accusing the Brandenburg Environment Ministry of spreading false reports. “Warning, another fake news is being spread in Germany!!! Pesticides and herbicides. In Poland the substance was tested and found to be below the limit of quantification, ie with no effects on fish or other animals and no connection to fish kills,” Moskwa wrote on Twitter .
The substances were not detected in fish, Moskva said in another tweet: “An unjustified attack on agriculture. First industry, now agriculture? What next?”
Elevated levels of pesticides detected
In the past few days, masses of dead fish have been discovered in the Oder on the Polish and German side. By Saturday, around 200 tons of carcasses had been collected in Poland and Germany. The Polish fire brigade put the amount at 158 tons. According to an earlier report by the Ministry of the Environment, there were at least 36 tons in Brandenburg. The exact cause of the fish kill has not yet been clarified.
Brandenburg’s Ministry of the Environment announced yesterday that high concentrations of a pesticide containing the active ingredient 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid had been found in samples taken at the Frankfurt (Oder) measuring point between August 7th and 9th. However, it can be assumed that the detected dose was not immediately fatal to fish. The active ingredient is used, for example, to combat weeds.
The excessive concentration of the pesticide over several days certainly had an impact on animals, plants and microorganisms. It is possible that the herbicide was present in even higher concentrations in the upper reaches of the Oder and was already heavily diluted at the Frankfurt (Oder) measuring point, the Ministry of the Environment said.
Live fish discovered again
Poland’s national conservative PiS government is under pressure because Polish authorities were hesitant to respond to the first indications of the fish kill. In Germany, too, complaints were made that Polish authorities had not complied with the internationally agreed information chains. Representatives of the PiS repeatedly responded with anti-German tones – and with attacks on the Polish opposition. They assume that they willingly accept the German narrative about possible causes of the environmental catastrophe.
Meanwhile, a statement by the regional head of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Zbiegniew Bogucki, gave some hope. Accordingly, living fish can be seen again. “Where we recovered tons of dead fish a few days ago, live fish have now turned up,” Bogucki wrote on Twitter. However, due to a lack of oxygen in the water, many fish are on the verge of suffocation and swim close to the surface.